Stock portfolio support and report editing?

[Arthur Torrey]

I am running GC 2.2.9 on Gentoo Linux, under KDE 4.3.3.  I am trying to figure 
out if GC is a suitable application for what I want to do in the way of 
managing and tracking a stock and investment portfolio.  Currently I'm just 
using a "paper" system, with no real money or transactions, but I don't see 
how that can matter - I figure once I get something working I can export the 
structure to a fresh set of books and go "live".

I have tried searching the archives, and not found anything really relevant - 
if I missed something, feel free to point me at other links.

So far I have been unable to get the kind of information I want displayed, and 
figure out how to get GC to track and display the information I want.

I have gotten the quote fetching setup working, at least when I hit the "get 
quotes" button in the price editor it comes back with a price.  However it 
does not seem able to transfer the price for the stock into the register - 
even when attempting to purchase a stock - but if I copy the price into the 
register manually, and attempt to purchase a specified dollar amount (say 
$500.00) the price per share will often change when I hit enter... (the price 
I copied from the price editor would have been gotten just a few minutes 
earlier when I first entered the security information)

What I WANT to be able to do, is enter a "trailing stop" price, or a price 
that is a set percentage below the stock price, and which serves as a signal 
to sell if the stock price drops excessively ("Sell the losers, let the 
winners ride")  I then want to update the stock price and the trailing stop 
(if the stock price has gone up) and graph them at the market close each day, 
similar to what the "tradestops.com" website 
<https://www.tradestops.com/index.asp> does, and put up a signal if a stock's 
price has dropped below the trailing stop price.

Assume I want to purchase stock "ABC" - I create an account for it, and enter 
it in the price editor, and "get quotes" for it - but the price does not show 
up in the account register anywhere that I can see - how can I make it do 
this?  

How can I enter a "trailing stop" price?

I understand how to make the price editor get the daily quotes, but how can I 
get any changes in price to show up in the stock accounts?

How can I make my trailing stop price recalculate as needed?

How can I get a graph of my stock prices?

I have noticed that there is a toolbar button for "add report" but it is 
always grayed out and inactive - what do I need to do to add a report - which 
I think might be how to do some of the above?

If this is something that GC isn't really suited for, I'd be interested in any 
suggestions for alternative Linux software (I really do NOT want to use web 
applications, as I want my financial data to stay on MY machine, not someone 
elses...)  I have found several links to stock market tracking programs, but 
all appear to be "dead code" - last update years back, no signs of life on 
their mailing lists, etc...

Thanks in advance,

-- 
Arthur Torrey
I'm an FSF member -- Help us support software freedom!
<http://www.fsf.org/jf?referrer=2442>

Speaking only as myself unless otherwise indicated!

GPG key: C02F53C5 
Fingerprint: 7D31 C4B5 7DEE 22FD 8C07  D76F A832 933F C02F 53C5

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